Monday, November 15, 2010

Music Dish: One Down, Three To Go: The Music Biz Shrinks Yet Again, as Courts Close EMI

Interesting article on "Music Dish":

One Down, Three To Go: The Music Biz Shrinks Yet Again, as Courts Close EMI
EMI has lost in court and it's now only a matter of time before its assets are chopped up

By Moses Avalon

It's official, EMI has lost in court and it's now only a matter of time before its assets are chopped up, dispersed and the famous Capital Records building in Hollywood goes condo. After EMI is dismantled there will remain only WMG, UNI and Sony as the remaining "Big Three" labels in the US and the UK.

The Silicon Valley giants are probably very excited today, since this means that there are only three major record distributors left to destroy before they can finally buy up their catalogs and not have to deal with the RIAA or their stupid one-sided interpretation of the Copyright Act.

Yes, this is great day indeed for those who think music should be free. Because the Beatles recordings along with Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, and many others will probably soon be the property of an ISP giant, or computer company who will use them as loss leader to attract subscribers.
Complete article


Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player Bookmark and Share

3 comments:

mathinker said...

It would be even more deliciously ironic if the company buying EMI's music assets would release some of the famous songs under CC licenses allowing redistribution / sampling / remix. And run a competition to see who can use them best to produce interesting new music.

To me, that sounds like an interesting way to generate new interest in old classics!

Well, on the other hand, this might confuse judges who think it's "obvious" to every 12-year-old that something is under a restrictive copyright as long as it's available somewhere in a record store with a copyright notice on it.

Let it be!

Anonymous said...

@mathinker:

amen brother, amen!

George Ziemann said...

The only problem with Mr. Avalon's article is that the courts didn't close EMI. The suit was a ploy to get the courts to reduce their debt. EMI lost the suit, but they haven't been shut down. Yet.